Slow Cycle
These are the remains of ancient plants and animals that we burn for energy, like coal, oil, and gas.
What are fossil fuels
It takes this many millions of years for carbon to finish one full "slow" trip
Hint: Its in the millions
What is 100 to 200 million years?
Plants inhale" this specific gas from the air to make their own food
What is Carbon Dioxide (CO2)?
This is the main way carbon moves from a plant into an animal’s body.
What is eating (or the food chain)?
This is the element that the whole cycle is named after
what is carbon
This type of rock, often made from crushed seashells, stores carbon for millions of years.
What is Limestone
This is the largest "sink" or storage spot for carbon on the entire planet.
What is the ocean (or rocks)?
During this process, plants use sunlight to turn carbon into sugar.
What is photosynthesis?
A forest fire is a fast way to move carbon from trees back into this part of the Earth.
What is the atmosphere (or the air)?
Because carbon traps heat in the atmosphere, it is known as this type of gas
greenhouse
Over millions of years, heat and this "heavy" force turn dead organisms into oil and coal.
What is pressure
This happens when rain and wind slowly break down rocks, carrying carbon into the sea.
What is weathering (or erosion)?
This is what we call it when humans or animals breathe out carbon dioxide.
What is respiration?
This "D" word describes how carbon gas from the air moves into the surface of the ocean water.
What is diffusion?
This is the chemical symbol for Carbon
What is C?
This is the name for the massive "storehouses" where carbon stays trapped for a long time.
What are Carbon reservoirs
When tectonic plates move, they push carbon deep into the Earth in this process.
What is subduction
These organisms, like mushrooms and bacteria, break down dead things and release carbon back into the soil.
What are decomposers?
If a tree lives for 100 years and then rots, its carbon journey is part of this cycle.
What is the Fast Cycle?
humans are adding extra carbon to the air by burning this
what is fossil fuels
Carbon can be released from deep underground during this explosive geological event.
What is a volcanic eruption
This frozen ground in the Arctic acts like a giant "freezer" for carbon until it melts.
What is permafrost?
These tiny, plant-like organisms in the ocean do most of the world's "fast" carbon recycling.
What is phytoplankton?
Besides CO2, cows and landfills release this other carbon-based gas into the air.
What is methane?
This is the part of the Earth where all living things (and their carbon) exist.
What is the biosphere